With a few days of stormy weather ahead of us, it’s time to talk about birds and hurricanes. Here in the northeast, hurricanes originating in the Caribbean typically weaken into tropical storm before we see them, sparing us most of the destruction, and setting up potentially exciting times for birders on the Cape.Weekly Bird Report on WCAI

With the summer nesting season behind us, it’s the time when bird researchers turn their collective gaze upon bird migration, and the many mysteries it holds. Right here on Cape Cod, scientists are studying bird migration using a variety of methods, from the high tech and cutting edge to good, old-fashioned, 19 th century trapping and monitoring methods – and sometimes both at the same time. On Monday, Brad Winn and his team from the conservation organization known as Manomet were once again hanging suspiciously around the Lieutenant Island bridge in Wellfleet in hopes of trapping a Whimbrel. They had lines with small, monofilament nooses strung along creek banks to grab the toe of a unsuspecting Whimbrel. Their goal was to place a satellite transmitter on a juvenile bird to help unravel the mystery of their migration routes and wintering locations. Whimbrels are big, crazy looking sandpipers with a huge sickle of a bill. They are thick in the marshes of Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet BayWeekly Bird Report on WCAI

A wonderful bird is the pelican, His bill will hold more than his belican, He can take in his beak Enough food for a week But I’m damned if I see how the helican! So goes the most famous limerick that Ogden Nash never wrote.Weekly Bird Report on WCAI

Some reverse snow birds are visiting the Cape from Florida this week. Two White Ibises have taken up a temporary residence at Mass Audubon’s Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, representing only the fifth ever record for the Cape and Islands.Weekly Bird Report on WCAI

Are there monsters in your barn? For property owners on the Outer Cape, the answer in recent years has increasingly been “yes.” I’m talking about categorically ugly, hissing, projectile vomiting monsters. But don’t call the Ghostbusters just yet, because these monsters have an important role to play in our ecosystem. They are Turkey Vultures, and they are nature’s morticians. The other day we received a call at Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary about a possible Bald Eagle trapped in an old shed near the sanctuary. Director Bob Prescott was soon on the scene, where he found just what he suspected: a Turkey Vulture nestling. Turkey Vultures, though eagle-sized and conspicuous when flying around, are shockingly secretive about where they nest. All of the nest records I know of on the Cape have been in old barns and other abandoned buildings, including the basement of an old National Park Service house in Wellfleet. So if you’ve inherited a sprawling old property with dilapidatedWeekly Bird Report on WCAI

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As we pass the midpoint of meteorological summer and start that accelerating roll to Labor Day, it’s time to check in on what’s happening out there in the bird world. I will admit that I routinely neglect our South Coast friends in my bird reports, but not this time. And that’s because something unusual is afoot (or should I say a-wing?) at the famed Gooseberry Island in Westport.Weekly Bird Report on WCAI

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It’s that time of year when babies and other youngsters are suddenly all over the place. And I’m not just talking about your visiting grand kids or your wife’s cousin’s kids. Baby birds are also everywhere now, livening up our beaches, woodlands, and especially our backyards with their awkward antics.Weekly Bird Report on WCAI

As I sit down to write this week’s bird report on the 4 th of July, I feel compelled to address our most patriotic of birds – the Bald Eagle. “Isn’t that a little ‘on the nose,’ bird guy?” you are probably saying. Yes, yes it is. But it is not without relevance to Cape Cod, where our national symbol is back after many decades of absence.Weekly Bird Report on WCAI

It’s June on Cape Cod, which means that it’s time for people to start squawking a little louder about Piping Plovers. These small, sand-colored local residents have been nesting on our beaches for eons, but in modern times they have come into conflict with certain forms of human recreation, and as a result have become “fauna non grata” among some people. And for those us who work to monitor and protect these federally Threatened birds, this negative perception of plovers can make for some bad days at work. Most our public interactions around nesting plovers are positive, and most people are understanding and even appreciative of our efforts. But we also hear a good number of gripes. Some of the anti-plover rhetoric is a little puzzling. The typical beach on Cape Cod either has no nesting plovers and hence no restrictions, or, if there are plovers nesting in the area, there is some string fencing around parts of the upper beach to protect the nesting habitat. The average person, whoWeekly Bird Report on WCAI

I always underestimate June. In my head, it marks the sad end of spring migration and all the giddy rediscovery that goes with it. Hearing the song of a warbler you haven’t heard in a year, seeing them and the Arctic nesting shorebirds in the full glory of their breeding plumage for just a few short weeks, and new local breeding birds arriving every day. Such are the joys of May. I think of June as the doldrums between the spring and fall migrations. And June always proves me wrong.Weekly Bird Report on WCAI

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